What’s for Dinner, #3

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Was it me or did it pass by really fast? Also, can you also believe Christmas is in 2 weeks? Where the hell did 2012 go? Craziness! It seems to me that I just had BB but that was already 10 months ago! Whoa…

We finally put up the tree and some lights up. Our house is always the darkest on the street because most of my neighbors like to decorate their houses for the holidays. We have some minimal lighting but it’s hard to see because of the great big tree in front of my house. Oh well. We tried. 🙂

We took some pictures of the kids in front of the tree for the holiday cards. Gosh. Next year I’ll have to start doing these cards around Halloween to get them out on time. At this rate, I won’t get the holiday cards till next week and that’s with priority shipping! I’ll have a week to get them out in the mail (Oh gosh). I need some little elves of my own to help me out!

By the way, I was planning on using the Folded Words promotion code I received in one of my Cravebox’s but holy moly, those cards are super duper expensive! Geez! No wonder it’s a $35 off code. It was still expensive after using the code so I opted to not use it. Craziness! I’m not sure if I’ll get to use the code… I’m not made out of money. Geesh.

IKEA Swedish Meatballs
The last time I had it (long time ago), the meatballs were served with halved new potatoes, with the skins still on.
I’ve never had it with mashed potatoes but I’m sure it’s really good!

So this week’s weekly meal is Swedish Meatballs. This is my second attempt at Swedish Meatballs. I love IKEA’s version of Swedish Meatballs and I get a craving for them at times. I found the recipe on Tasty Kitchen and I think this recipe is so much better than my first attempt at Swedish Meatballs (Alton Brown’s recipe). I like the fact that the meatballs in the Tasty Kitchen recipe are baked, not fried in a pan. Although the next time I make it (soon!), I will cut down the butter portions. After I baked the meatballs, they were swimming in a pool of butter. Yummy but bad for you! Also, the next time I will make it with low sodium beef broth because I found that it was a bit salty but it went perfect on top of noodles. I also made my meatballs with already seasoned bread crumbs so I didn’t need any additional salt. I didn’t have allspice but it was missing a touch of nutmeg. This is how mine turned out:

Swedish Meatballs over Whole Wheat egg noodles
I know, I needed some garnish, like chopped parsley to make it look better

But this tastes so good! The meatballs are nice and moist, and not dry at all. I found that the meatballs in the other recipe were a tad bit dry. And oh boy, whole wheat noodles! A little portion goes a long way. They weren’t exaggerating about the effects of whole wheat noodles. LOL

The meatballs were so good that CB snarfed these down. Two days in a row! That never happens. My mom is going to try again tonight to see what happens. I don’t expect him to snarf these down 3 days in a row but we’ll find out and see!

Preparation Instructions

To make the meatballs, heat the butter in a skillet over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, allspice, salt, and white pepper for about 5 minutes, or until garlic and onions are soft. (I just used dry minced onion, so I just cooked it for about a minute.) Add the milk and Worcestershire sauce to the mixture, and bring to a simmer.

Dump the breadcrumbs in a bowl. Pour the hot skillet mixture over the breadcrumbs and stir together. Add the beef, pork, egg and egg white to the bowl, and mix until combined. (It’s easiest to use your hands and squish everything together for about 5 minutes.) Spray a sheet pan to grease, and roll the meat into 1-inch balls, and place on a baking sheet. One recipe makes about 35-40 meatballs. Cover your sheet with plastic wrap and refrigerate the meatballs for about an hour. (I stuck them in the freezer for about 25 minutes.) Heat the oven to 400ºF and bake the meatballs for about 20 minutes, or until cooked through.

To make the gravy, melt the butter in a skillet and add the flour. Cook for a few minutes while whisking. Pour in the beef broth and Worcestershire sauce, bring to a simmer. Finally, add the heavy cream and the cooked meatballs. Let simmer, until the gravy thickens, about 10 minutes Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Serve as is, or on top of a bed of rice, noodles, or potatoes. Garnish with parsley.

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Delicious! I will definitely make this again. Meanie AND my picky toddler loved it. Success!